Friday, December 01, 2006

Marriage Equality

I thought more about my post regarding Brokeback Mountain, and the movie itself, since my quick review. I wanted to mention the one part of the movie that I thought was the most important, and illustrated very effectively. It is captured poignantly and perfectly by my blogbuddy Weboynyc when he writes:

"The film is about how this affair - the course of true love - can damage so many things when it is closed off from its full expression."

The scene where Jack and Ennis are discussing what "could have been", made me think of my sister-in-law Davina's work in the area of marriage equality. The inability to have what you most want, the all consuming nature of that and the destruction that can be caused by denial and hypocricy, is a terrible fate.

Every year on Valentine's Day, Davina and Molly go to City Hall. Molly wears a wedding dress. Davina wears a suit. And every year they are turned away at the desk. "But what if I came here with a man that I picked up on the street five minutes ago?" Davina will always ask. And the answer will always be the same - that would be fine. 10 years together and a lifetime in between is somehow less of a case for marraige than two strangers on the street with different sexual organs.

While Davina and Molly are in a committed relationship, out and proud with supportive families and friends, their inability to marry reduces all of this to something less than what they want it to be.